[MR] use of photos

[Tim]

Normally, I just lurk on this list, but this is a topic I have researched extensively and given a lot of thought to.

To me, there are two dimensions to this question: what is legal and what is "right".

If you are in a public place (and that applies to just about everywhere except locations where you have "a reasonable expectation of privacy" - the interior of your house, inside your tent, etc.), then I have the right to take your photo. You can ask me not to, of course, but I can do it anyway. It is technically legal, but in my mind, it's not "right", so I would never do so.

I also have the legal right to print, display or even publish it on the web... as long as I'm not trying to make money off it. 

If I do intend to make a profit, then I MUST get a model's permission form signed by you. 

(This is greatly oversimplified, by the way, but I wanted to be brief.)

Having said this, however, my personal belief is that if I take a picture of, for example, Duke Logan in a really cool combat pose, that picture belongs to him as much as me. Without him, there would be no cool picture, so to claim that I have an intrinsic right to profit from his image, or exclusive ownership of said image is just... wrong, however technically legal it might be, without involving him in some way. 

We are a society of friends, in my mind, and to take advantage of that friendship for mere profit or to claim exclusive ownership of someone else's image would be a disservice to us all. In the mundane world, I might feel differently, especially if I were a professional photographer, but we live in a far different and (I hope) better world when we leave our mundane life behind and go to SCA events. 

I know what I can do legally, and what I should do in a society of friends, and there is no doubt in my mind which path I intend to follow. I feel privileged to record these images and even more so to be able to share them freely with the subjects of the photographs.

These are my personal views and do not apply to anyone else, but I hope that all of the rest of you photographers out there consider my words and act according to your own conscience.

Now can we please stop beating this poor dead horse? :)

Ursus of Anglesey